06 October
2006 - London, United Kingdom — SolarChill is
a new ozone friendly refrigeration technology
using solar power, enabling delivery of vaccines
and food to regions of the world without electricity.
Developed by us along with six other organisations
it has won the Environmental Pioneer in Refrigeration
award in the 2006 Cooling Industry Awards.
The SolarChill project developed
a versatile refrigeration technology that operates
on solar energy; uses environmentally safe refrigerants;
bypasses the use of lead batteries; and can also
be plugged into the electricity grid. Developed
over the last six years, SolarChill has been field
tested in Senegal, Indonesia, and Cuba and once
it receives World Health Organisation (WHO) approval
will be deployed across the world.
"The Solar Chill technology
clearly demonstrates the huge, largely untapped
resource of clean, renewable solar power that's
out there. This innovation will improve the delivery
of vaccine programmes in many regions of the world
and save countless lives," said Wolfgang
Lohbeck of Greenpeace Germany.
Hopefully SolarChill will eventually
replace the 100,000 kerosene refrigerators in
use today around the world for cooling vaccines.
Kerosene refrigerators are often unreliable and
produce approximately between 73 and 91 million
kilograms of CO2 each year.
Developed along with UNICEF,
UNEP, World Health Organisation (WHO), GTZ Proklima,
Programmes for Appropriate Technologies in Health
(PATH) and the Danish Technological Institute,
SolarChill will improve both human health care
and help fight global warming.
More about SolarChill
At the same awards ceremony
Coca-Cola also received an award for equipping
all World Cup stadiums in Germany with refrigeration
technology that doesn't use powerful global warming
gases and it more energy efficient. This is another
positive result of our successful campaign to
make Coke switch to more environmentally friendly
refrigeration technology.
More about Coke's switch to
climate friendly refridgeration.
All in all a nice night for
us, but a even better night for recognising technology
that is good for the planet.
